Gasoline-powered snowblowers are conventional, and well known. However, powering snowblowers by means of an electric motor, though not unknown, is not common. Electricity has not been accepted as a favoured means for driving the drum of a snowblower. The power required for a conventional snowblower configuration can be easily supplied from a small gasoline engine, whereas drawing that much power from electric batteries can require an inconveniently large outlay in batteries. Supplying that much power from the electric mains via an extension cord would not be convenient either.
On the other hand, electric power is favoured no less for snowblowers than for other appliances, for the usual benefits of electric power, i.e simplicity of structure, ruggedness, lack of service problems, quietness of running, efficiency, and so on.
The invention is aimed at enabling the benefits of electric power to be realised in a category of cases where electric power was hitherto considered inappropriate.